The Municipal and Sanitary Engineer's Handbook

by H. Percy Boulnois

(3.) The next duty of the town surveyor is to inspect all defective drains within his district, and serve the necessary notices, &c.

This duty is embodied in the following clauses of the Public Health Act, 1875:

“Where any house within the district of a local authority is without a drain sufficient for effectual drainage, the local authority shall by written notice require the owner or occupier of such house, within a reasonable time therein specified, to make a covered drain or drains emptying into any sewer which the local authority are entitled to use, and which is not more than one hundred feet from the site of such house; but if no such means of drainage are within that distance, then emptying into such covered cesspool or other place not being under any house as the local authority direct; and the local authority may require any such drain or drains to be of such materials and size, and to be laid at such level and with such fall, as on the report of their surveyor may appear to them to be necessary.

“If such notice is not complied with, the local authority may, after the expiration of the time specified in the notice, do the work required, and may recover in a summary manner the expenses incurred by them in so doing from the owner, or may by order declare the same to be private improvement expenses.

“Provided that where, in the opinion of the local authority, greater expense would be incurred in causing the drains of two or more houses to empty into an existing sewer pursuant to this section, than in constructing a new sewer and causing such drains to empty therein, the local authority may construct such new sewer, and require the owners or occupiers of such houses to cause their drains to empty therein, and may apportion as they deem just the expenses of the construction of such sewer among the owners of the several houses, and recover in a summary manner the sums apportioned from such owners, or may by order declare the same to be private improvement expenses” (38 & 39 Vic. c. 55, s. 23).

The above clause is the most simple under which this duty can be carried out, provided it can be proved that the house[210] is “without a drain sufficient for effectual drainage,” and for this purpose it would probably be necessary to enter the premises and open up and examine the drain, unless, of course, it was a case where no drain existed to the house at all, or was evidently and notoriously without “effectual drainage.” In order to enter for this purpose the requisite powers are conferred in the following clause of the Public Health Act 1875:

“The local authority, or any of their officers, shall be admitted into any premises for the purpose of examining as to the existence of any nuisance thereon, or of enforcing the provisions of any Act in force within the district requiring fireplaces and furnaces to consume their own smoke, at any time between the hours of nine in the forenoon and six in the afternoon, or in the case of a nuisance arising in respect of any business, then at any hour when such business is in progress or is usually carried on.

“Where under this Act a nuisance has been ascertained to exist, or an order of abatement or prohibition has been made, the local authority or any of their officers shall be admitted from time to time into the premises between the hours aforesaid, until the nuisance is abated, or the works ordered to be done are completed, as the case may be.

“Where an order of abatement or prohibition has not been complied with, or has been infringed, the local authority, or any of their officers, shall be admitted from time to time at all reasonable hours, or at all hours during which business is in progress or is usually carried on, into the premises where the nuisance exists, in order to abate the same.

“If admission to premises for any of the purposes of this section is refused, any justice on complaint thereof on oath by any officer of the local authority (made after reasonable notice in writing of the intention to make the same has been given to the person having custody of the premises), may, by order under his hand, require the person having custody of the premises to admit the local authority, or their officer, into the premises during the hours aforesaid, and if no person having custody of the premises can be found, the justice shall, on oath made before him of that fact, by order under his hand authorise the local authority or any of their officers to enter such premises during the hours aforesaid.